Defending Main Street, a super PAC supporting Senator Susan Collins, spent nearly $25,000 on digital ads attacking her opponent Troy Jackson in Portland, Oregon, instead of Portland, Maine. The campaign ran the ads from October 8 to October 11, mistakenly targeting hundreds of zip codes across Oregon and Washington State, according to Google’s Ads Transparency Center and fortune.com.
The 30-second ad titled “So Many Taxes” was intended to run in Portland, Maine, where Collins and Jackson are competing. The error came to light after an Oregon social media user reported seeing five anti-Jackson ads in one day. Defending Main Street attributed the misplacement to a media vendor error, as confirmed to Newsweek. Meanwhile, the same ad aired on broadcast TV in Portland, Maine, reaching about 675,000 impressions over the same period, per AdImpact data cited by MS NOW.
Susan Collins has served as a senator from Maine since 1997 and is known for her moderate Republican stance. Her political base includes voters from Maine’s northern regions, similar to her opponent Troy Jackson. The ad campaign was part of efforts to influence voters in Maine’s crucial Senate race. The misplacement of digital ads in the wrong Portland highlights challenges in targeted political advertising, especially when cities share names across states.
The digital ad spending in the unintended market totaled nearly $25,000 over four days, while the broadcast TV ads in Portland, Maine, generated approximately 675,000 impressions, according to data cited by fortune.com.